The third season of In the Dark, a true crime podcast from The New Yorker, digs up a murder case that many people in power would prefer buried: the killing of at least 24 men, women, and children in Haditha, Iraq, by U.S. Marines in 2005. Only one Marine was ever convicted of a crime in relation to the massacre (“dereliction of duty”) and he served no jail time.
Through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits and an impressive amount of gumshoe reporting, In the Dark uncovers details about the incident and the cover-up that are even more disturbing than what was revealed at the time, including the existence of a 25th victim, who died in a military hospital without his family being informed.
“What Band-Aids do you want to rip off? This is pretty hurtful in the first place,” Col. Gregory Watt, who oversaw the Marines’ initial investigation, tells In the Dark. “Lots of people’s careers were destroyed for this.” When the reporter asks about Iraqi survivors, Watt insists that they must have moved on, because Arabs “have different values than we do.”
Safa Younis begs to differ. “To show the truth, so that their blood isn’t spilled in vain, to hold accountable the ones who did this,” Younis says, is the only way to do right by her dead parents and siblings. She was 11 years old when she hid from the Marines under a couch, covered in her sister’s blood.
Many Americans, including the Marines involved in the Haditha massacre, treat the war in Iraq as an embarrassing mistake to walk away from. In the Dark reminds us that the victims can’t do that. It was their country that got invaded—and they’re the ones who have to live with the consequences today.
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